A concert crowd at the 2015 Secret City Festival in Oak Ridge. (Photo by Robert Welton)

The 2015 Oak Ridge Secret City Festival drew record attendance, despite the heat, organizers said. Concerts by the Marshall Tucker Band and Three Dog Night attracted the highest number of spectators in festival history.

“We were ecstatic with the turnout for both concerts,” says, Marc DeRose, executive director of the Oak Ridge Convention and Visitors Bureau. “We knew the bands would be popular but didn’t expect to see quite so many people. It was outstanding!”

Attendances for The Marshall Tucker Band and Three Dog Night were more than 2,200 and more than 3,500, respectively. The previous record was 2,300 for the Rick Springfield concert in 2013.

“After seeing how many tickets were sold at the gate for Friday’s Marshall Tucker concert, we decided to move the concert fences back to accommodate the expected additional 1,000-plus spectators for Three Dog Night,” DeRose said. [Read more…]

TORCH, a local nonprofit that works with homeless families and low-income people, hosted its second annual art show during National Homelessness and Hunger Awareness Week from November 17-23.

Anderson County art students (grades seven-12) were invited to submit PIT Poster Contest entries, while younger students (grades kindergarten-six) were invited to submit illustrations for a children’s book, “The Home for Carley.”

The PIT Count is an annual, nationally mandated count of the homeless by county over a 24-hour period in the month of January. TORCH directs the PIT Count for Anderson County each year. [Read more…]

The art display at Oak Ridge Public Library for February is a collection of exciting nature compositions photographed by Robert Forbes.

Forbes grew up in the flatlands of the Midwest, but after following his family to East Tennessee in April 2001, he found inspiration in the river rapids and the majestic beauty of East Tennessee’s landscape. Before moving to the Oak Ridge area, Forbes lived just outside the entrance to Cherokee National Forest and also resided on the scenic Cherohala Skyway. These locations spurred him to create and paint with a passion.

John Muir once said, “The clearest way into the universe is through a forest wilderness,” a sentiment that resonates with Forbes. He takes day trips into the mountains almost every weekend and photographs hundreds of scenes each time. [Read more…]